Visa has told processors to stop classifying memecoin purchases under merchant category code (MCC) 5815, the code for digital goods and media, The Block reported on September 19, 2026. The crypto news outlet first exposed the practice in an investigation published September 1. Visa has not commented publicly.
The fix matters because the code, not the product, decides how a card purchase is treated. Filed as digital media, the memecoin buys carried none of the flags that mark a crypto purchase, so cardholders earned rewards that crypto transactions normally don’t.
Robinhood Wallet and Fomo buys ran through Crossmint as digital goods
Card-funded memecoin purchases in the Robinhood Wallet and Fomo apps were routed through Crossmint, whose processor is Checkout.com, and submitted under MCC 5815. Because the code carries none of the crypto markers, buyers collected their usual points and cash back, even though crypto purchases are normally excluded from rewards.
According to The Block, Visa told Checkout.com directly that the category is no longer appropriate for memecoin purchases. Citing the newsletter Crypto in America, it reported that processors have a grace period expected to end the week after publication. After that, the transactions must be processed as crypto purchases, with the restrictions on rewards that come with them.
| Classification | Rules applied | Rewards |
|---|---|---|
| Digital goods and media (5815) | standard digital-goods treatment | usual points and cash back |
| Crypto purchase | the network’s own restrictions for the category | normally excluded from rewards programs |
Crossmint says nothing has changed on its side. “Crossmint maintains good standing with Visa, Mastercard , and all of our payment and card network partners,” a spokesperson told The Block. “Our position and procedures on how we process digital goods through our platform has not changed.” The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James told the outlet it was aware of the product and was looking into the matter.
Merchant coding is a compliance issue, not back-office plumbing
Assigning an MCC is not paperwork. It is the declaration that the network, the issuer and the regulator rely on to know what was sold. It sets the rate the merchant pays, shapes the issuer’s approve-or-decline decision, determines which dispute rules apply, and drives the monitoring of sensitive categories such as gambling and crypto.
- A wrong code exposes the merchant and its acquirer to fines under network rules.
- It defeats issuer filters that block or cap certain categories.
- It skews fraud monitoring, which is calibrated by category.
- It shifts costs: points paid out in error come out of the issuer’s rewards program.
The rule was sidestepped through a classification, not a hack
Card networks have long policed crypto purchases on cards, with dedicated categories and restrictions that issuers apply unevenly. What is new is not the rule but how it was bypassed: not through technical fraud, but through a business classification that put the purchase in a different category.
For acquirers, the lesson is operational. Reviewing the codes assigned to fast-changing merchants, starting with wallet apps, is a first-line control. It should rest on evidence of what the merchant actually sells, not on what the merchant says it sells.